Breath Marks: Haiku to Read in the Dark [Paperback]

Gary Hotham (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hotham notes the power of language in his Preface, and how powerful it is here: in three or four short lines to disconcert, disillusion, illumine, delight, to 'capture a moment.' God's world, like himself, is one and many. The haiku takes one brief moment and illumines all of life and history. -- John M. Frame, Westminster Theological Seminary

"Gary Hotham keeps turning out wonderfully subtle and simple poems, honing them to a pitch of perfection until they quietly consecrate the quotidian." --Cor van den Heuvel (editor, The Haiku Anthology)

"Realize. Gary Hotham is haiku." --Bob Arnold (editor, Longhouse)

"Hotham notes the power of language in his preface, and how powerful it is here: in three or four short lines to disconcert, disillusion, illumine, delight, to 'capture a moment.' God's world, like himself, is one and many. The haiku takes one brief moment and illumines all of life and history." --John M. Frame (Westminster Theological Seminary)

"Gary Hotham keeps turning out wonderfully subtle and simple poems, honing them to a pitch of perfection until they quietly consecrate the quotidian." --Cor van den Heuvel (editor, The Haiku Anthology)

About the Author

Gary Hotham has been described as a poet whose "vision and craft combine to form an aesthetic all haiku poets aim for but few ever achieve." Global Haiku lists Hotham as one of the top ten English-language haiku poets of the twentieth century. Born in Maine, he currently lives in England with his wife and daughter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 110 pages
• Publisher: Canon Press (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885767587
• ISBN-13: 978-1885767585
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 4.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,191,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #35 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Japanese & Haiku

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a slivered glimpse of haiku, May 15, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Breath Marks: Haiku to Read in the Dark (Paperback)

I bought this book on a lark and found that one reading was not enough. I have read it many times over and seen varying images appear in each haiku. I have shared his haiku with others who also enjoy his breath. It is a beautiful slivered glimpse of haiku. Try reading it between an inhale and an exhale and feel the marks it leaves in your breath. A most appropriately titled book. I am looking forward to his next book.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Moments Etched on Paper, December 20, 2004

By 

Julie Jordan Scott "Writer, Life Coach - Owne... (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breath Marks: Haiku to Read in the Dark (Paperback)

There is something wondrously ironic and perfectly haiku-esque in the biblical scriptures noted in the introductory pages of this splendid, thin volume of haiku.

Perfectly Zen-like.

When I first read this book months ago I underlined this quote - which is a fitting introduction to Hotham's work:

"But why read or write poetry? Well, because poetry lets the writer do something with our language that other forms do not. And that something special is the energy inherent in the words and their arrangements."

I am not sure why one would want to read these words in the dark. All I can figure is that we can read them in the dark because of the quiet and sure echo or ripple they carry upon one's heart. While so very simple in form and so compact in number of words, the eighty haiku within continue to resonate for a long, long time.